(SEE ‘RECIPE’ BELOW)

About Mainstream Laundry Products:

After looking into the list of chemicals in mainstream laundry products over two decades ago, I never purchased them again. It was scary stuff then, but what’s disturbing today is that ‘mainstream detergent makers’ are no longer required by law to list any of the carcinogenic and hormone-disrupting chemicals in their products on the labels. There is a telephone number to call “for more information”. I’ve tried calling that number, and didn’t get very far.

Today, we have the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment. The EWG’s mission is to empower people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. With breakthrough research and education, they drive consumer choice and civic action.

EWG provides consumer guides to tens of thousands of products including food, personal care products, and cleaning products. The following guide shows how the EWG rates household and cleaning products (interesting to note that we couldn’t find one commercial fabric softener with less than a D to F rating):

WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW:

LINEAR ALKY BENZENE SULFONATES (LAS) are petrochemicals that take a long time to biodegrade, which makes them a hazard to humans and animals (as benzene may cause cancer in humans) and to the environment.

There are countless research documents available, including this one from 1998, when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services / Public Health Services National Institutes of Health, ran a National Toxicology Program study with over forty-eight distinguished contributors from the scientific community, who issued a report entitled, “Toxicology And Carcinogenesis – Studies of Technical Grade Sodium Xylenesulfonate (CAS NO. 1300-72-7) In F344/N Rats and B6C3F1 Mice (Dermal Studies). You can read their publication No. 98-3380# here

PHOSPHATES, used to help your clothes stay clean longer by preventing dirt from sticking to them, are a nightmare to ecosystems, triggering abnormal growth of marine plants.

ARTIFICIAL FRAGRANCES containing Phthalates / synthetic Fragrance or “parfum”. Phthalates interfere with the body’s proteins, are hormone disruptors classified as xenoestrogens, found in personal care products and plastics, and are linked to disease processes, linked to various toxic effects on mammals and fish, and can cause skin and eye irritation as well as allergies.

“Most laundry detergents,” writes Sabina M. DeVita, Ed.D.D.N.M., NNCP, IASP, “contain a potentially toxic brew of chemicals that can leave residues behind on your clothing, be absorbed by your skin or be released into the air you breath.” [p.56, Your Right To Know Vibrational Cleaning Guidebook, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-59930-435-9]

I used to tell my clients, “Always remember that your skin is your body’s largest eliminating and absorbing organ!”

WHAT WE CAN DO:

WASHING LAUNDRY: Check for a truly non-toxic product at your local healthy store, OR, to save money, using pure natural ingredients and essential oils for scent, you can easily and economically make our own liquid or powdered laundry cleaner like we did (pictured above) that will not cause our bodies harm. See the recipe for a liquid laundry soap below: